Knäckebröd (Swedish crisp bread)
Knäckebröd - crisp bread - is a very common dry, hard and crunchy type of bread in Sweden, and very important basic foodstuff. (Note: Not my own images; online & Wikipedia.) Traditional crisp bread is made of rye flour, water, yeast and salt. In modern times, new varieties of crisp bread have been created by using different types of grain and toppings/ingredients. You can enjoy crisp bread as it is with some butter, or whatever type of cheese with tomatoes and/or other vegetables. Old-school style crisp bread is round with a hole in the center. In former times, the hole was used for hanging the bread up on a rack to dry. This was also for keeping them out of reach for mice and rats. Modern day mass production of crisp bread in factories enabled the shape to be square or triangle, for optimized size, packaging and transport. In Sweden, and some other Nordic countries, crisp bread is served with other lunch food and drink in school canteens (for free, i.e. financed through taxes) on a daily basis. In general, crisp bread is beloved among most people, and popular as a healthy afternoon snack, with your breakfast or even - depending on the dish - dinner. At a breakfast or dinner table, it is a very polite and respectful gesture to hand someone else a butter knife to use for your crisp bread, so anything about it is deeply rooted in our culture.
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